running

Most mornings when I’m short on time I reach for cottage cheese for breaky. Low in sugar and carbs, high in protein – it keeps me full throughout the day. Slice up some fresh fruit, or go the savory route with chopped onion, red pepper, celery and black pepper – it’s extremely versatile and takes me about a minute to prep. But this morning I was out. Being far too lazy and short on time for a grocery run, I found some plain yogurt and went for it. It was delicious! Better than my usual cottage cheese and fruit breakfast I’ve been eating for years. So I thought to myself, what really is the difference between the two?

I didn’t choose these brands for any particular reason, but most plain versions tend have similar nutritional values anyways.

Calories
Yogurt is slight lower in calories than the cottage cheese (40kcal less, 36% lower). So if you’re strictly counting calories, yogurt can be your friend.

Protein
Cottage cheese wins this one, and by a long shot (9g more, almost 300%). A few years ago I opted for a low carbohydrate focused breakfast to a high protein one. That’s why I started eating cottage cheese in the first place. I always found I was starving at work within a few hour of eating cereal, toast etc. Most mornings I work out before eating breakfast so that blast of protein afterwards is great. Plus I still replenish carbs with the fresh fruit I add.

Fat
They’re both the same. You chose them at 2%. 😛

Carbohydrates
Surprisingly they’re both the same. I’ve seen some versions of plain yogurt that have significantly more carbs via sugars, but the Astro brand seems to be a good choice.

Taste
I really liked the yogurt better. This may be because I’ve been eating cottage cheese for years straight, and the change up is nice. Both have very different textures, and different flavor. I’m leaning towards the yogurt!

Conclusion:I was honestly expecting to heavily favour the cottage cheese. I assumed the two would vary quite a bit and always thought yogurt was higher in sugars and carbs, so this is a pleasant surprise. I’ll definitely keep both in my morning routine. Keep in mind this is PLAIN yogurt, once you get into the Vanilla and other flavors expect lots of sugar and/or artificial sweeteners. If you add chopped fruits, you really shouldn’t need the flavored version anyway.

There are obviously other factors involved in making the right choice for you – some yogurts have higher calcium, lower sodium and Greek yogurt will have more protein. Yogurt also has bacterial cultures with proven benefits for your immune system and so on. For me, I’m more worried about excess sugars, and getting that higher protein content. I’m not afraid of fat either, and it can be your friend – although calorie dense. So unless you’re concerned about higher calories, go the yogurt route. If protein is what you’re looking for, go for cottage cheese. Otherwise – either are a great addition to your morning.

Which of the two do you favor? Or am I the only one who thinks this much about breaky?

I just never want it for dinner, you know? It just doesn’t seem satisfying at all, almost a solid food’s garnish. Admittedly I’ve never actually made my own soup, until today. It was actually really good! Heavy on the garlic, so I”ll tone that down next time. I love posting recipes on my site for you, but it’s really for myself too. I’ve made so many dishes in the past that were simple, healthy and really good… all to be forgotten. Selfish? Not entirely! I get many of my recipes online and try to tweak them for my own liking, or to cut out ingredients I either don’t have, or think is excessive. So if any look familiar that’s because they’re all out there 🙂

Take this Butternut Squash & Asian Pear Soup Recipe – heavy cream? Not necessary when you have the squash. I used almond milk instead, but I’m convinced water would have been fine. The curry addition is a good idea too.

Check out the recipe here – feel free to use as a based and adding your own flavour! Just don’t eat is your main dish.

So a friend of mine so politely suggested that maybe I should post more often. I like hearing suggestions from fellow readers and anyone really, so I figured I could start today.

I’ve been asked this question fairly often, and this was actually her suggestion to me: What does your typical day look like as far as exercise and meals go? Well my dinner tonight isn’t really typical – I’m expecting to eat as many wings and drink as much beer as I can handle on a “school night”- but the rest really is. On a typical weeknight for dinner I’ll more than likely have some sort of meat (lean steak, chicken breast/thigh, salmon etc.) with salad, steam veg or similar.

Portion control isn’t really my strong suit, so I try to eat before 6:30pm so I don’t feel so full for the early morning workouts.

Well, I haven’t posted in quite a while so I wanted to post a quick update.

August was a great vacation month of travel, food and wine. I even did my first portage trip at Algonquin National Park here in Ontario. Great times!

I came back from a pretty lax August, to a very intense September. We’ve had big changes at work that always seems to stress everybody out (even though we’re fairly protected, and heavily unionized). I still have a job – booya! I started my training for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in the first week of September. I didn’t realize how intense it was until I was a week or so into it. I have had very little time to post, so I’m trying to make an effort today to do so.

FOOD:

For the training I started eating 6 small meals a day. Running almost every day really prevents me from having the giant meals I enjoyed in August. It’s a weird transition; it almost feels like too much food but it’s in such small quantities that it isn’t. Constantly eating fools my stomach into thinking it’s full. I like this alot, and so does my stomach when I head out for the 5am runs in the morning. It does require quite a bit of meal prep because 4 of the meals are while I’m at work.

TRAINING:

I’ll just put my September calendar below. The workouts I’m doing are a stark contrast from my last routine. I’m focusing on the running, and thus I’m just trying to maintain muscle, and keep strong the ones I need to run properly. I’m still very sore – especially after the long run Sundays. I’m used to running 5-10kms, so it’s quite an adjustment. You might laugh at the calendar – but this is something I need to make sure I actually do it. Now do you see to correlation to making the log books? Comments always appreciated!

Hilarious sprints-day GPS map (below)

Enjoy some August photos below – and guess what I made 56 bottles of? So good!